Dealing with Grief and Fears

If you don’t remember The Jewel of the Nile, you’re too young to be reading this article. If you do remember The Jewel of the Nile, you’ll remember “When the Going Gets Tough.” Great song and Billy Ocean sounds the same today as he did then…

My 15-year-old grandson died by suicide six weeks ago. At 3pm, six weeks ago, I was wondering how many of the delicious cookies that I’d just baked I could eat. By 5pm, my whole world had changed for ever. To say life is now difficult is a complete…

Elvis picked me. We met in the Russian Blue cat breeder’s lounge room. The other kittens ran around, ignoring me. Elvis trotted over, paused for a quizzical look, then jumped into my lap. He purred, I petted, he curled up and slept. Smitten, I took him home…

Should you read your parents’ letters? Are their journals and private musings cathartic or potentially devastating? I face this question right now, and it’s a big one. A while back, after moving to Eugene, Oregon this past year, I saw an article by a fellow Sixty writer…

At one time I felt that Jonathan, aka Darth Vader, was the “Man of My Dreams” – my “last lover” (and exactly how many “lovers” do I wish to accumulate? Not too many is the hope…). Weird how one can believe in fairytale romance…

Remembering a loved one is a deeply personal experience. At the same time, one of the things that is special about our community is that we can talk about difficult topics. So, today, I want to offer 13 ways to remember someone that you have lost…

If you’re in your seventh decade of life or beyond, no doubt you have experienced some plot twists. Whether illness, divorce, death or an otherwise unexpected curve ball that life threw at you. In my conversations with hundreds of people who have lost a spouse…

Sylvia was becoming more and more frail. It was clear that, though in good spirits, her body was nearing the end of life. She kept having visits to the hospital and had recently had a fall which had precipitated one of these. As women 60 and over, we will often…

Two days ago, I received a note from a reader who follows my writing on a couple of different platforms. It caught me by surprise, if for no other reason that it is so very easy, sitting here in relative isolation and still under the corner of the heavy quarantine…

As baby boomers start facing their own mortality, the idea of eco-friendly funerals is becoming more widespread. If you bicycle, recycle or just want to minimize your final carbon footprint, consider these unique eco-friendly approaches for a greener…